Heather Reisman

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Heather Reisman in 2007.

Heather Reisman (born 1948) is a Canadian businesswoman. Since 1996, Reisman has been the President and Chief Executive Officer of the retail chain, Indigo Books. Previously, she was President of Cott, a leading supplier of private label carbonated soft drinks.^[1]

[edit] Early life

Reisman was born in Montreal, Quebec, the niece of Simon Reisman who headed the Canadian delegation that negotiated the 1988 Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement.

She was educated at McGill University.

[edit] Career

In 1996, she founded Indigo which, in 2001, merged with its main rival, Chapters, to form the largest book retailer in Canada. Along with her husband, businessman Gerald Schwartz, Reisman is a director of the Onex Corporation.^[1]

She drew praise and criticism in October 2001, after announcing that she was banning Hitler's Mein Kampf from sale in her bookstores.^[2]

The controversial anti-Bilderberg Group website www.bilderberg.org reported that she attended the 2005 Bilderberg Conference, May 5-8, 2005.^[3]

In August 2006, as a result of differing reactions by the two main Canadian political parties to the 2006 Lebanon War, Reisman announced that she and husband Gerry Schwartz would be joining Robert Lantos in withdrawing their longtime support for the Liberal Party of Canada and supporting the Conservative Party of Canada under Stephen Harper. ^[4]

Reisman was also a delegate at the 2007 Bilderberg Conference in Istanbul, Turkey, 31 May - 3 June 2007. She was in the company of other notable Canadians: Jason Kenney, Member of Parliament; and Gerald Butts, Principal Secretary in the Office of the Premier of Ontario. ^[5]

Heather Reisman is an avid reader and as "chief book lover" she reads all the books she picks as a "Heather's Pick".^{[citation needed]}